Halloween Safety

With Halloween right around the corner, make sure to keep in mind these important safety tips when taking your little ones out to trick or treat:

• Kids should only go to well-lit houses and remain on porches instead of going inside
• Have full name and phone number attached to child's costume if they are too young to remember them
• Bring treats home before eating so an adult can inspect them
• Costume accessories should be flexible, not rigid or sharp
• Use flashlights and have children wear reflective gear so cars will be able to see your group in the dark
• Prepare your home for trick or treaters: clear sidewalks and porches of any obstacles, mow lawn
• Drive slowly on neighborhood roads
• Look carefully when backing out of driveways
• Have children exit the car on the curb side and not traffic side 

Not sure of a safe place to take the kids trick or treating? Here are some places in your area that will be holding trick or treating events:

San Marcos:

• Storybook Parade, Oct. 28th, 10:30am-1:30pm
• Relay For Life at Tanger Outlets, 7pm, booths, trick or treating and a costume contest!
• Farmer Fred's Harvest Fall Carnival, Oct. 29 6-9pm, food, games, costume contest and more!
• Halloween Festivities and Art Market, Oct. 29 3-10pm @ Wake the Dead Coffee House
• Creature Crawl at the San Marcos Nature Center, Oct. 30th 4-7pm, $2 per participant
• Trunk or Treat at the Plasma Center, Oct. 30th 5:30-7:30pm, games, candy and Halloween fun!
• Tanger Outlets
• First Baptist Church Fall Carnival: Free games, food and Trunk or Treat, open to the community, 5:30-8pm

New Braunfels:

• Trunk or Treat
• Downtown Halloween Spooktacular
• Cross Lutheran School Fall Festival, Oct. 28th
• Fall Festival, New Braunfels, Oct. 28th-30th

Buda:

• Boo-Dah Halloween: Oct. 27th, downtown Buda serves as a safe and fun opportunity for children to trick-or-treat for Halloween and includes Halloween stories, crafts, games and more Halloween fun at the Buda Public Library.

Wimberley:

• Free Safe Halloween at the Fire Station, 6-8:30pm
• Halloween on Wimberley Square

Gruene:

• Gruene Harley Davidson Halloween Bash
• Gruene Lions 5th Annual Halloween Fest 2-7pm

You can find details to all events on the Event Calendar. Have I missed an event? Leave a comment and let me know or look for Mom Spot on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mom.spot

Carter's Coupon

I love Carter's! I went out yesterday with my online coupon and bought my kids some much need winter attire. They are having some great sales so go out and take advantage!

Olde Towne Faire

The First United Methodist Church is hosting the 2nd annual Olde Towne Faire today from 10am-4pm.

Activities include:

• Shop in the Indoor Market for unique and hand crafted items
• Admission is free to vendor area
• Door Prizes for all!
• Pumpkin Patch

Children's Basic Package $5 includes activities and games with fun prizes, face painting and a visit to the petting zoo.

Children's Basic Plus Package $7 includes Basic + one hotdog and one drink.

Children's Premium Package $10 includes all activities, games, petting zoo visit, hotdog, drink and one pony ride.

Family Max $50 for Premium Packages for all children in a single household.

Petting Zoo open from 10am-2pm

Pony Rides  open from 10am-2pm, rides are $5 each without purchase of premium package.

Silent Auction closes at 3pm

The Outdoor Grill  with outdoor seating in gated playground will serve from 11am-3:30pm. Drinks $1/ Nachos $2/ Burgers $3/ Hot Dogs $2/ Sausage Wraps $2

Bake Sale featuring seasonal pies and breads

A Casual Lunch including dessert will be served 11am until 2pm at $8 a plate

Decorative Fall Tree

Every year, it never fails. I go out, spend way too much money on decorations for Fall and Christmas, and come home saying, "Why did I do that?" I love decorating for the holiday season. The only thing I hate is spending the money to support my obsession.
A few years ago, I was out shopping and found this Fall decorative tree covered in tiny wooden pumpkins. I had to have it! It was perfect until I looked at the price tag. So instead of spending the $30 to take it home, I spent $15 to make it myself. It was so easy, the only challenge was having the time to sit and make it. Luckily, my oldest child was still in that heavenly phase of taking 3 hour naps. So during naptime one day, I sat and made what is now one of my favorite-and cheapest-Fall decorations.

Here's what you need to make my Fall tree:

Styrofoam cone: any size you prefer
Red or black spray paint
Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
Pumpkin spice potpourri: I usually find some at Target in the decorative section. Just found a package on clearance this past weekend for $7...woo hoo!

Once you have all of your supplies, start by spray painting your styrofoam cone with the red or black paint.
Leave it out over night so it can dry.
When dry, start gluing on the pumpkins, starting at the bottom and winding all the to the top. *The gluing took me a good 2 hrs.*

There you have it! If you aren't crazy about the pumpkins, use any other decoration you can find that goes with your Fall decor.

Find a Pumpkin Patch!

I love taking my kids to our local pumpkin patch each year to snap some cute Fall pictures and to pick out a pumpkin to take home and decorate. Here are some local pumpkin patches that have a great selection for your pumpkin this year.

New Braunfels

Gruene

San Marcos

Wimberley

Kyle

Buda

Elgin Christmas Tree Farm: Pumpkin patch and family fun activities

Marble Falls

Do you know of any other pumpkin patches in the Central Texas area? Leave a comment and let me know!

Hays Nursing and Rehabilitation 3rd Annual Fall Fest and Health Fair

Come join Hays Nursing and Rehabilitation for their annual Fall Fest in San Marcos on Sunday, October 23 in the front parking lot of the center. Activities include:

• 4 Piece Live Band
• Costume Contest
• Face Painting
• Basketball Goal
• Fishing Pond
• Ring Toss
• Cupcake Walk
• Hay Ride
• San Marcos Fire Truck
• Popcorn
• Bottled Water
• Candy

The fun is from 4pm-6pm! Hays Nursing and Rehabilitation is located on 1900 Medical Parkway in San Marcos.

DIY: Halloween Style

Are you still debating which pricey Halloween costume you are going to buy for your kids? I dropped $20 on a Halloween costume for my youngest the other day. $20 for an outfit he will wear once. *Sigh* But....it was so cute, I justified it in my mind all the way to the register. If you are still debating whether to break down and buy a brand new costume...WAIT! These are some super cute ideas that you can do yourself. Now, I know what you're thinking, "I don't want it to look homemade!" My mother once paraded me down the street on Halloween when I was 7 years old in her version of a bunny costume. It was white panty hose, a white trashbag and some bunny ears. I loved it because I didn't know any better and thought my mother was amazing for making this great costume! Now a days there are a few more ideas out there that you can reproduce that will look more presentable than the "Trashbag Bunny". Hope you find one that works for your kids!

Harvest Fall Fun....

at the Sweet Berry Farms in Marble Falls!

• September 24-November 12, closed Wednesdays
• Stuff your own Scarecrow
• Scarecrow Island Hayrides
• Candy Corn Hay Maze for the kids
• Ride the Sweet Berry Express Barrell Train
• Pick your own flowers
• Horse rides: on October weekends only
• Picnic tables available to use
• Open space for kids to run
• Pet horses and goats, see the chickens
• Ice cream
• Face Painting
• Open Mon, Tues,Thurs, Fri, Sat fom 8:30am-5:30pm
• Sundays open 1pm-5pm